The purpose of this blog is to pull together various blog posts about school leadership issues for ease of access and sharing. There are ten in this compilation.
Tackling Workload
10 low impact activities to do less of – or stop altogether.
This was a runaway blog hit when I posted it. The challenge for school leaders is to act on some of these things and really start to cut into teacher workload. It can be done if we’re serious enough about it.
Making a change in assessment thinking
Towards an Assessment Paradigm Shift
This post explores the changes we should make away from macro data tracking towards a much greater emphasis on formative assessment where the real differences to student learning are made – as well as having implications for reducing workload.
Leadership Gold: Brilliant ideas from other schools.
New Year Gold: A selection of brilliant ideas from some fabulous schools
This includes ideas about behaviour, parents’ evenings, knowledge organisers, quality assurance methods, lesson observations….
Curriculum Design: 40 Models
This has been a popular read. 40 models; no two the same. You might also find this post useful, an example of the thought process when designing a curriculum model:
Planning a KS3-4 Curriculum Model: Walking through the thought-process.
Great CPD – and the ways it can be wasted
10 ways the gold dust of CPD time is wasted.
There are lots of good CPD models out there – and this is post highlights some of the pitfalls where CPD time isn’t given the respect it warrants.
Principled School Leadership
I think Headteachers are often under pressure to follow a path they don’t entirely believe in. I think we need to resist that as much as possible and this post highlights six areas where I think principled, intelligent responses are needed to stand up to the pressure.
Six principled practices for intelligent schools:
Technical Areas to Plan for: Six things to get right in every school.
6 things to get right in every school. Each of these areas require some strategic thinking but at least you can plan them – they’re not subject to the ebb and flow of daily school life.
Leadership Metaphors and Beliefs
This is a collection of ideas I’ve gathered from various sources about different aspects of leadership including managing change, the roles of culture and systems and the tight-loose balancing act.
School Leadership in 12 slides.
Work Scrutiny
This post examines a range issues leaders should consider regarding book scrutiny. What is it for? That’s the key question – and this then informs how you should do it.
10 Questions to ask about Work Scrutiny and Book Looks.
Raising our game in non-exam years.
This post asks questions about the relative emphasis we place on standards in the non-exam years, suggesting that we should up the ante in Year 3-5 and Year 7-10 to avoid the extraordinary pressures faced by teachers in Year 6 and Year 11/
Y6 and Y11 take too much strain: up the ante from Y3 and Y7.
teacherhead 